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tell
1

verb (past and past participle toldtəʊld)

1 [reporting verb]Communicate information to someone in spoken or writtenwords: [with object and clause]:I told her you were coming [with object and direct speech]:‘We have nothing in common,’ she told him [with object]:he’s telling the truth [with two objects]:we must be told the facts

Origin

In Old English tell meant ‘to count’, a sense that is still seen in the term teller (Middle English) for a bank official. The meaning ‘to disclose, reveal’ does not appear until medieval times. To tell tales out of school is to gossip or reveal secrets about the wrongdoing or faults of someone else. In Old English untold meant ‘not counted, unspecified’. In late Middle English this became ‘not able to be counted’ (untold suffering). See also marine, talk

Origin

In Old English tell meant ‘to count’, a sense that is still seen in the term teller (Middle English) for a bank official. The meaning ‘to disclose, reveal’ does not appear until medieval times. To tell tales out of school is to gossip or reveal secrets about the wrongdoing or faults of someone else. In Old English untold meant ‘not counted, unspecified’. In late Middle English this became ‘not able to be counted’ (untold suffering). See also marine, talk